Parentlink

I would like to inform you of the implementation of a new parent contact system that we will use in Garfield School District in the next few weeks.  The program is called “Parent Link”; it will allow the schools to automatically place a call to parents when students are marked absent at the beginning of the day.  I am worried about the student who walks to school each day and for some reason or another they don’t arrive at the building.  Parents may think their child is safely at school and the school may think they are home sick for the day.  To avoid this potential problem, Parent Link will call parents starting at 8:30 am to inform them their child is absent.  If a parent calls in to excuse their child from school they will not receive a call from Parent Link.  The District will automatically upload the attendance at the end of the school day to place a call to the parents informing them of the individual class periods missed for that particular school day.

Parent Link also has the ability to contact parents in the event of an emergency situation.  The principal will have the ability to record a message to be delivered to parents in this type of situation.  The system will allow a school with 240 students to place a call to the parents in under two minutes.  If you receive one of these calls, please listen to the entire message, it will repeat the message two times and will give the parents valuable information.  In the event of school closure or emergency situation, Parent Link has the ability to deliver accurate information to the parents in a very short time.

It is critical to make sure your parent contact information is current on the school student information system.  You can do this one of two ways, first you can access your students contact information by logging onto your students grade book and selecting contact information.  The second option is to contact the secretary at the school to review your contact information.  It is helpful to provide a primary contact and a cell phone number.  If Parent Link does not have an answer at one phone number it will automatically call the secondary number.  The District cost for the system is approximately $1800 which I feel is money well spent to help improve the communication between the schools and the parents.

–Superintendent Ben Dalton